Need help with HP Z Turbo Drive G2 512GB.

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nthu9280

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Feb 3, 2016
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Does anyone know if this is locked to certain models of HP workstations only? Docs mention supported on HP Z440, Z640, Z840. I won an auction claiming it was new/unused. I put it in old HP Elite 8300 (ivy bridge era) and Win10 does not see it. It's possible that system BIOS may be old but I wasn't looking to use that as boot drive. Not sure if the unit is dud or just being notorious HP locking.
 

nthu9280

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Feb 3, 2016
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Not sure if the adapter is dead or only locked to HP Z _40 work stations.

I took the NVME drive and instead directly in the MB M.2 slot and CentOS can see it. It's a HP branded Samsung SM961 512GB drive.

Put it back in the adapter, no nvme drives can be found
 

obrith

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Nov 21, 2017
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We figured out how to fix them for our uses. We ordered a batch of Z420's in with these cards and some users didn't want the PCIe slot taken up so we ended up with pulls we wanted to use elsewhere. You have to remove the Q1 transistor. The card just constantly resets unless the computer sends a command to stop resetting (only the listed HP models will do that) unless you physically disable the 'feature'.
 

nthu9280

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Feb 3, 2016
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We figured out how to fix them for our uses. We ordered a batch of Z420's in with these cards and some users didn't want the PCIe slot taken up so we ended up with pulls we wanted to use elsewhere. You have to remove the Q1 transistor. The card just constantly resets unless the computer sends a command to stop resetting (only the listed HP models will do that) unless you physically disable the 'feature'.
@obrith

How does your cards show on other systems? Mine doesn't seem to appear at all. I tried in HP Elite 8300, Z600 and on a Supermicro C7Z170 motherboard.

When I run dmesg I don't see Samsung at all using the adapter and lspci / nvme report nothing found. On Supermicro MB with M.2 slot and I can see the nvme list the drive. But does not show using the adapter.

Which version do you have? I have the one with the heatsink. Funny thing is most of the links don't work on HP site for the docs. I get a Page can't be found error. Links seem to work fine for the docs in the Quad adapter.

Z Turbo Drive | HP® Official Site
 

obrith

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Nov 21, 2017
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That's what I'm saying - the adapter has a 'feature' that makes it not work on anything but Z workstations. You have to remove a transistor (Q1) from the board to bypass the 'feature'.

The device continually reboots, and thus will not show up, in anything but the systems that know how to disable the reboot loop - HP Z workstations.

And yes, I'm talking about the PCIe adapters w/ M.2 NVMe samsung cards in them "Z Turbo G2".
 
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obrith

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No problem. It was pretty frustrating - especially given the lack of documentation you also discovered. Seems like a pretty sweet feature to put Engineering hours into for HP.
 

obrith

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Nov 21, 2017
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Exactly. Obviously keep in mind it's unlikely they'll warranty it after modification. We have several we've removed that have been in service for a while working fine. Worst case if you ruin it you still have an M.2 drive?
 

edgerider

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Dec 20, 2018
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No problem. It was pretty frustrating - especially given the lack of documentation you also discovered. Seems like a pretty sweet feature to put Engineering hours into for HP.
hi there!
@obrith
I just desolder Q1 transistor, but cant see de adapter in the system, is there anything to do with the 3 jumpers or did i ****ed it up?
many thanks!
 

SirSlothington

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Dec 19, 2018
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That's what I'm saying - the adapter has a 'feature' that makes it not work on anything but Z workstations. You have to remove a transistor (Q1) from the board to bypass the 'feature'.

The device continually reboots, and thus will not show up, in anything but the systems that know how to disable the reboot loop - HP Z workstations.

And yes, I'm talking about the PCIe adapters w/ M.2 NVMe samsung cards in them "Z Turbo G2".
@obrith
Wow thanks so much, worked like a charm! I know, this is about 6 months old now but can you tell me how you found out which transistor was critical for this "feature" and how you monitored the behaviour of the PCIe device in the first place? I just started hardware-design studies and this fascinates me. I asked one of my teatchers about this an he just called it black magic...

Thanks a lot and merry christmas!
 
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edgerider

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Dec 20, 2018
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Wow thanks so much, worked like a charm! I know, this is about 6 months old now but can you tell me how you found out which transistor was critical for this "feature" and how you monitored the behaviour of the PCIe device in the first place? I just started hardware-design studies and this fascinates me. I asked one of my teatchers about this an he just called it black magic...

Thanks a lot and merry christmas!
@SirSlothington hi there!
do you by any chance have the green jumper settings in mind?

just tried this with a turbo drive g2 with a sm951 inside, desolder q1 transistors bit still can see the drive anywhere ?
 

SirSlothington

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Dec 19, 2018
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@SirSlothington hi there!
do you by any chance have the green jumper settings in mind?

just tried this with a turbo drive g2 with a sm951 inside, desolder q1 transistors bit still can see the drive anywhere ?
@edgerider
Sorry my post was actually meant for @obrith (just forgot the "@").

I really don't know anything about the jumper settings yet - time to look for a manual I guess. I don't think it has to do with the NVMe drive at all. I got only a Z Turbo (not a G2) but it looks like in the picture above. Also same jumper settings
 
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obrith

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Nov 21, 2017
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Hi @SirSlothington,

One of my staff is an EE who took the time to delve in and figure out what they were doing to disable it. He used a probe and found a continual reboot loop on the card that was only stopped via a command given by specific HP motherboards. We weren't impressed they spent Engineering time crippling their hardware.

Removing the resistor stops the reboot loop and doesn't appear to impact the card otherwise.

@edgerider - We haven't needed to mess with the jumpers. I'm pretty sure their use is to allow more than one in a system (it sets a device ID). On our units the only thing we had to do was remove that one resister. If you did damage the board you can always take out the M.2 and put it in another (non HP) PCIe adapter.
 

edgerider

New Member
Dec 20, 2018
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Hi @SirSlothington,

One of my staff is an EE who took the time to delve in and figure out what they were doing to disable it. He used a probe and found a continual reboot loop on the card that was only stopped via a command given by specific HP motherboards. We weren't impressed they spent Engineering time crippling their hardware.

Removing the resistor stops the reboot loop and doesn't appear to impact the card otherwise.

@edgerider - We haven't needed to mess with the jumpers. I'm pretty sure their use is to allow more than one in a system (it sets a device ID). On our units the only thing we had to do was remove that one resister. If you did damage the board you can always take out the M.2 and put it in another (non HP) PCIe adapter.
thanks,
yes i have ripped the transistor, but I was trying to find a use to those adapter
i’m on mac so i just bought those to get the ahci sm951 which are bootable on old XSERVE
 

nthu9280

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2016
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San Antonio, TX
IIRC, the jumpers for multiple adapters in the same system. Check the docs to confirm.

I didn't want to mess with de-solder etc, so just sold the adapter and called it a day :)
 

amdavid

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Jul 19, 2020
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@obrith
Wow thanks so much, worked like a charm! I know, this is about 6 months old now but can you tell me how you found out which transistor was critical for this "feature" and how you monitored the behaviour of the PCIe device in the first place? I just started hardware-design studies and this fascinates me. I asked one of my teatchers about this an he just called it black magic...

Thanks a lot and merry christmas!
Hi @SirSlothington
I know it is an old tread but worth a shot :)
I have a Z640 and I am experiencing the same problem. ZTG Product website says it is supported by Z440, Z640 and Z840 so I am not sure if I need to remove the Q1. Is yours is a Z[4/6/8]40 system?

Thank you very much.
 

Kuz

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Oct 7, 2016
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Anyone ever try or find a mode for the Z Turbo Quad Pro that could unlock it for all systems as well? Have one I'd really like to play with outside of HP
 

SDHarrison

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Nov 6, 2023
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Anyone ever try or find a mode for the Z Turbo Quad Pro that could unlock it for all systems as well? Have one I'd really like to play with outside of HP
I'd like to know that too! I bet there is a "Q1" transistor equivalent in those too. To remove the Q1 transistor from the ZTD G1 or G2 you don't need to desolder. There are two lower thin attachments of Q1 to the ZTD G1/G2 card PCB, shown in this thread above. Only one is present at the upper Q1 edge. I used a scalpel/small Exacto blade holder to gently cut free that upper single one (they are tin-coated soft copper alloy thin contacts about 1/16" wide each). Once that was easily done you then fold up and down on the lower two and they'll quickly separate by metal fatigue from the PCB, removing Q1 cleanly.

I do have a question... does anyone know where you look to see the device ID change on these from within the OS when you change their addressing via the jumpers/two tiny switches that are jumper equivalents on the ZTD QP?
 
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